All We Are
by Unpredictably Reckless
Summary: The Bakers thought they were close but when the kids are hiding secrets from their family they realise that they're not the same big happy family that they once were. Strong themes ahead, first chapter is introduction. Please Read and Review.
1. Prologue

**Title: **All We Are

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Cheaper by the Dozen, I just own the plot of this story and the DVD's.

**Summary: **The Bakers thought they were close but when the kids are hiding secrets from their family they realise that they're not the same big happy family that they once were. Strong themes ahead, first chapter is introduction. Please Read and Review.

**Authors Note: **Does anyone even come into this section anymore? Probably not but I've been watching Cheaper by the Dozen a few times over the past week and I've had this storyline stuck in my head so I just had to write it. It's inspired by Music Writes fic 'Our Not So Simple Life'. It mostly centres on Henry, Sarah, Jake, Mike and Mark. The twins will be in it too but their storylines aren't that important as the others. It deals with strong themes such as homosexuality, stress, identity problems – any of the teenage drama that you would find in tv shows nowadays. So if you don't like any of that stuff I wouldn't read this. But if you do, please read and leave a review while you're at it.

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><p>The Baker family had grown up a lot over the past couple of years. Ever since their trip to Lake Winnetka it seemed to have changed their family. They're still as close as ever but something just wasn't right. Everyone had changed, even the younger kids. This all started since they had started school and high school. Tom had insisted that they were just growing up and it wall all apart of puberty but Kate couldn't help but feel that there was something else that was slowly eating at her kids, tearing them apart.<p>

Nora lives with Bud in the city. They have been happily married for years now. Tom is now five years old and Nora is expecting her second baby. However things are falling apart and she's lying to her family as she doesn't want them to lose their respect of her and still want to prove to her parents that she can live independently and look after her own family.

Charlie lives up at the lake with Anne. He's now twenty three and is ready to start living his life. With his garage doing really well and his relationship with Anne he has that he's ready to take it to the next level. He just hopes that Anne is on the same path as him.

Loraine is twenty years old and is living out her dream job in New York. She's been working for the magazine Allure and has been editor for almost two years. She's living her dream life – or so that's what she tells her parents but in reality she's living in an old apartment with no job and no money to help with her rent. She doesn't want to tell her parents as she doesn't want to seem like a failure.

Henry is eighteen years of age and is finishing up high school. Over the last few years Henry grew up a lot. But now as he's getting ready to leave high school and his exams are coming up, Henry is now pressured and feeling the stress and is deciding on his future.

Sarah has just turned seventeen. Since the whole situation with Elliot at the lake Sarah has becoming more insecure on how she looks and as she tries to change her look she finds herself dealing with the most popular crowd in the school and begins to lose herself in the situation.

Jake is dealing with a lot of things at the moment and it's not just puberty. At the age of sixteen, Jake has a lot of anger issues. He's been getting into fights lately and has been distancing himself from his family. When his teachers begin to worry they get him to do extra credit and have him in the school's play. But his problems get even worse when he realises who else is in the play.

Mark is fifteen. Ever since he ran away he became a lot closer to his siblings, especially Mike. As he starts high school he finds himself becoming the victim of the schools bully. As it gets worse Mark begins to get afraid and doesn't tell anyone.

Jessica and Kim are both fourteen. They're still as smart as they ever were, probably even smarter. They're also in high school and as they begin to get older they can feel themselves distancing from another.

Mike is thirteen and he's still his old mischievous self who still loves to do dangerous stunts no matter how many times he's been told off. But he's struggling with his grades and his subjects and realises that there's something wrong with but he doesn't tell his parents.

Nigel and Kyle are both ten and are starting their first day of big school. They're both worried as they have never been separated before and are afraid of being alone.

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><p>Kate was worried about her family. Something wasn't right about them. She could feel it, call it a mothers instinct. It was a mother's instinct to know when her family was acting strange and why her kids were quiet and not they're usual self. She didn't know when this started. When they all started fall apart, sometimes they wouldn't even hang out with each other apart from a few.<p>

She needed to find out was wrong. She needed to find out what was troubling her sons and daughters, why they weren't speaking to her, why they weren't speaking to each other. Why she kept getting calls from their school's principals. She just needed to know. She wanted everything to be the way it was. The way it was like before their trip to Lake Winetka when everything was perfect. She just needed her family together again and the only way she was going to do that was she was going to find out what was wrong. All she just wanted was her family back together again.

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><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong>There's chapter one – or well the prologue really. I know nothing happened but like I said it was just the introduction. I'd be really surprised and happy if I get any reviews on this so if you do read, please review. I also apologize if there's any spelling/grammar mistakes. Also sorry that it's so short, next chapter will be longer.

-**UnpredictablyReckless**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Another fight?" Kate asked looking at her son in disbelief, while Jake carefully placed the icepack against his black eye, wincing at the sensation. "Jake, this is the third time this month that you've gotten into a fight." Kate shook her head and sat down in the chair in front of him. "What has gotten into you?"

Jake rolled his eyes, knowing this speech was going to come. "It wasn't my fault okay?" Jake defended himself. "The other guy started it." And this was true. This time anyway. Jake had been fighting with this guy called Parker Evans and it seemed like he was it his job to make Jake's life a living hell. Although this time it was Parker's fault, Jake did kind of overreacted the other times. But this time, it was personal and Jake wanted to make sure he got what he was asking for. "He insulted my family okay? I had to do something." He shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was.

Kate sighed. "Well it was good that you were looking after your family. But fighting him? Jake you know better than that." She shook her head. "Did you get any punishment?"

"A week of detention." He told her, already dreading it.

"Well at least something good came out of it." Kate said and Jake knew by the tone of her voice she was disappointed in him. "Go up to your room. I'll send one of your brothers and sisters up when dinner's ready."

Jake sighed knowing he'll probably get his punishment later. He didn't say anything and went up to his room that he shared with Henry and flopped onto his bed when he got there.

"Woah what happened to you?" A voice exclaimed. Jake sat up a little to see Mike standing in the doorway.

"Nothing." Jake grunted, he sat back down and rolled over to his side facing the wall.

Mike realising Jake wasn't going to say anything else about the subject, he changed. "Do you have an extra pair of skates?

"I thought you did?" Jake asked.

"They're not for me. They're for Mark." Mike explained. "I'm teaching him how to skate."

"Since when did you two become best friends?" Jake asked him. Lately, he, Mike and Sarah hadn't been hanging out with each other as much as they did. Jake didn't really hang out with any of his siblings anymore, just his two best friends Chris Atwell and Haley Saunders. Even Sarah didn't hang out with anybody out of the family. But then again Sarah wasn't herself nowadays.

Mike shrugged, not knowing the answer himself. "Go ahead." Mike grinned at his brother and looked around for the skates. Seconds later he was out of the room.

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><p>Henry came home an hour or so later after Jake had come home. School had finished an hour ago but with the SAT's coming up, all that Henry had been doing was studying and he was hating it. He couldn't wait for these next couple of weeks to fly through that way he would no longer have to study.<p>

He sat at the table and was about to take out some more books to work on one of his projects when Sarah came in, looking like she wanted to talk to him about something.

"Henry you just came home from school and you're already studying? Haven't you been studying for the past few weeks now? I think you should take a break." Sarah said, worrying about her brother.

But Henry shook his head. "No I'm fine. I just really need to work on this project. It'll only be for about an hour at least." He told her.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Listen I was wondering if I could talk to you about Jake."

"What about him?"

"Aren't you worried about him?" She asked and he turned to look at her.

"Why should I be worried?" Henry asked her curiously.

"Haven't you noticed that he hasn't exactly been talking to any of us? That he's been getting into fights pretty much every single day and yet hasn't explained why he's been getting into them?"

Henry shook his head. Yes, he had been noticing his brother's unusual attitude and the fact that he had been getting into trouble more than usual. But he didn't think it was anything to worry about.

"I have noticed but I don't think it's anything you should worry about."

Sarah frowned. "Are you sure?"

Henry nodded. "I'm positive. He's probably just going through some things at the moment and he probably just needs to sort them out."

"If you say so…." She trailed.

Henry raised his eyebrow at her. This was the first time in a while he had seen her looking so worried about one of their siblings.

"What do you care anyway? You haven't exactly been sister of the year lately."

Sarah looked hurt. "Look, just because I haven't been hanging out with you guys doesn't mean I don't care about you. You're my family, I always care about you."

"It doesn't seem like it." Henry muttered before working on his project indicating that the conversation between him and Sarah was over.

The brunette stared at him. "Whatever." She said annoyed and stomped off.

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><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong>Hey guys, I'm so so so sorry for not updating this story sooner. I really didn't think that I would get so many reviews on it and that people actually enjoyed it. But I kind of had writers block for a while and just went off writing for ages but seen as its 2014 – has it really been two years since I posted this? (damn, I'm sorry) I'm going to try and update this more regularly (but let's just see how well that works out) and write more stories.

I apologize for this chapter I just wanted to give you guys a little filler chapter or something to say that I haven't forgotten about this story.

Again thank you guys for all the reviews and I will try and update this more – if you guys could give me ideas for chapters that'd be great. Anyways hope you like it and that most of you will still be with me and if you are please review.

-**UnpredictablyReckless**


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